Home Spotlight: An artistic journey

Saturday

Nov 23, 2013 at 2:38 PM

Mark Underwood ­­let his dreams shape his Asian-inspired property.

By Myndi Milliken

This feature first appeared in the fall 2013 issue of Lenawee magazine.

Using inspiration from the art of bonsai, Japanese architecture and his own dreams, Mark Underwood, owner of Adrian's Underwood Nursery, has spent the last two decades turning his modest ranch home and acre parcel into an award-winning fantasia.

On North Adrian Highway, just north of Adrian, people often stop their cars to admire the mailbox — unlike any mailbox — featuring a waterfall, and the limited view of the Asian-themed home and gardens. But many never see the hidden treasures behind the house, a place that has been the site of model shoots, magazine photos and inspiration for others to emulate at their own residences.

"I acquired this home from my grandparents in 1982," Underwood said. "I used to mow the lawn here when I was a kid. I love the view of the golf course across the street. But I just wasn't happy with the way the house looked."

So began the process of turning the 800-square-foot home into a dynasty. He tore out walls on the inside and turned the attached garage into living space. As the years went by, idea after idea came to him—sometimes inspired by a project seen in a client's home, or from his work at the nursery, and sometimes from dreams.

Often, his inspiration came from the artist within — the same artist who has shaped bonsai trees with a creative eye and techniques honed from ancient Asian traditions. Underwood has long been recognized internationally for his bonsai techniques and cultured specimens.

While the interior of his home is impressive — a southern-Florida contemporary style featuring custom woodworking (for example, he has custom LED floor light fixtures that feature 64 pieces of wood each), alligator wallpaper, imported Italian furniture and mirrors galore on a neutral palette — to step outside is like stepping into another world.

"May of 2008 was when I dug my first hole out front," he said. "The amount of time it has taken to get to where I am now is crazy, because it's all custom, but the ideas just keep coming."

His first hole became a fountain, which was just the beginning of an artistic journey that would incorporate repeating elements of earth, fire and water.

"The mailbox is my artistic rendition of a Japanese lantern," Underwood said. "It's beautiful; it starts out wide and goes narrow. It's sexy and I like things that are appealing to the eye."

Most appealing is his use of Japanese-inspired architecture in creating buildings that lack straight lines and appear to "float."

"When I built my garage, I wanted it to be Markenese, and that's my rendition of how a building should look without any straight lines," Underwood said. "There are no drawings; it's all design-build. You won't find anything like it."

The sloped walls cover a solid-frame construction — which is not apparent to the eye from the outside. Inside, the garage resembles a typical pole barn and features a hoist so two cars can be stored vertically.

The sloped walls and floating appearance are repeated throughout the property, from fire pits to copulas.

"Repetition is the name of the game," he said. "If you look for something, you will find it, even in the smallest of details."

This same method of repetition is duplicated in the imported wrought iron accents, louvers, stucco, mirrors, stained glass, hand-hewn wood and "lazy eyebrow" roofing styles reflected in just about every piece of ­­architecture.

While many of the materials were imported from Egypt and reconstituted into the design, Underwood incorporated local materials, such as recycled dead trees, trees cut from his own property, and beams from a 150-year old Blissfield barn, as well.

"I have gotten my materials from a lot of places," he said. "It has been a complex project that has required a crew of electricians, masons, carpenters and laborers."

Aside from the beautiful Asian-inspired buildings, Underwood built features — like a working traditional Asian water wheel, a fire bar floating above the in-ground pool, a cabana, a 35-foot Asian bridge and a small rendition of a Japanese torii — that make it difficult to choose a favorite.

But Underwood's favorites are the bonsai trees of varying shapes, sizes and stages that he has been raising since 1971. Part of his private collection, the trees range from a few inches tall to several feet high but are mostly decades old.

"I'll always have bonsai in my blood," he said. "I still do it and still love it and I plan on doing it as I get older too."

Just like his ideas for the bonsai inspire him to use new techniques to create shapes in innovative ways, Underwood said he let his artistic side and dreams shape his property.

"I couldn't stop the ideas from coming. Sometimes I had dreams about certain things, so I spent a lot of time on it, one piece at a time."

Of course he didn't do it alone. He built a crack team of assistants to help him with tasks like installing a pump system that can handle 150,000 gallons of water an hour, and an electrical system that can be controlled from a smartphone.

"The biggest challenge has been finding people who want to work a lot of hours," he said. "But this year was good — we finally have most of the elements completed and I was actually able to enjoy this past summer because there wasn't as much construction."

Underwood now can share his dreamscape with friends, family and clients with parties that have features unlikely to be experienced anywhere in the area.

"People wonder what possesses me, drives me," Underwood said. "It's busy work running a company and doing this — there's not a lot of time for sleep. But knowing this is my property and there are no limits to my ideas fuels me.

"When I have a customer, I'm limited due to budgets or what the neighbors might think. Here, I can do what comes to me and I know I can do it for residential customers as well. I never did this to impress anybody — I just wanted my house to be my home."

Underwood was recently awarded the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association's Grand Award, cited as one of the most prestigious in the industry. He has won multiple awards for his design not only at his own property, but for client properties as well. His work has been featured in magazines around the world in both landscaping and bonsai design. He is a longtime member of many associations, including the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society, and on the board of directors for American Bonsai Magazine.